2017-2018 NHL Season

Riggins44 said:
Have the Caps ever beat the Penguins in a playoff series? It sure doesn't seem like it.
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One time, in 1994. The Penguins have won 9 of 10 playoff series against the Caps, including the last 7 in a row. And in each of the five years they won the Stanley Cup, they beat Washington along the way. So it's a huge series for both teams, but then again every playoff series is huge.
 
It reminds of the "Battle of Alberta" in the 80's. Edmonton won every series, except one time in 89' when Calgary won the cup...
 
The 2nd round has begun. Despite giving up a goal in the opening seconds and being down 2-0 in the 3rd period, Pittsburgh scores three unanswered and steals Game 1 3-2!! Murray was tremendous, making key saves and keeping the Penguins in the game before the offense took over. Crosby's line got all three goals, and were great tonight! Hornqvist, Crosby, and Guentzel all scored. A big win for the Pens considering Malkin and Haglin were both out. It will be interesting to see how the Capitals respond.

Vegas/San Jose starting shortly! This should be a fun series.
 
The Pens are playing close to the way they did in the '16 playoffs, with their speed leading to turnovers and goals. They're faster than Washington and more skilled offensively. It's only one game though and easily could have gone to the Caps, but was fun as heck to watch.
 
Vegas demolishes San Jose 7-0 last night! The goals were scored by 7 different players. Vegas doesn't have a true superstar, but they roll four lines, they're fast, play VERY well as a team, and have sky-high confidence. Another big reason for the Golden Knights' success has been the stellar play of Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury has three shutouts through five playoff games, and has only given up three total goals in the playoffs. It's good to see Fleury playing so well, and I hope he keeps it up. It will be interesting to see if Fleury and the Knights can continue to stifle a San Jose offense that annihilated the Ducks last round.
 
Absolutely incredible performance by Vegas, especially considering San Jose gave up just 4 goals total in the series against Anaheim! Fleury was mostly a terrible playoff goalie for Pittsburgh until last year, but Vegas plays tight defense in front of him so he doesn't give up the gaping rebounds like he used to. Will be interesting to see how San Jose rebounds in Game 2.
 
Capitals beat the Penguins 4-1 to even the series in a game they had to have. Washington put in a strong performance though Pittsburgh got boned out if a goal on a shot that on replay clearly looked like it crossed the line and was a goal. The series moves back to Pittsburgh for Games 3 and 4. I am glad the Caps showed some strength and emotion in this game and didn't fold like a cheap suit and give up their 3-0 lead, as has been their history against the Pens. I'm looking forward to the rest of this series.
 
Yes, the Caps came out and won on Sunday like they needed to. Even taking away my bias as a Penguins fan, I'm not sure how that shot was not a goal; how they didn't see the ice in between the puck and the line I will never know. Game 3 tonight though! It looks like Malkin will be back, and Brian Dumoulin looks likely to play after looking like he was concussed last game.

All of the series were tied at 1-1 last night after the Lightning knocked off Boston. Vegas beat San Jose 4-3 in San Jose and take a 2-1 lead in the series. The Golden Knights showed a lot of resilience after losing Game 2 in Double OT.
 
What a game last night! Back and forth all game, it was tied 3-3 in the third period until Ovechkin slapped in the game winner with 1:07 left. Lots of good, hard hits. Nothing really dirty though Tom Wilson did have a somewhat controversial hit on a Pens player in the second period that drew blood. Looking forward to Game 4 tomorrow!
 
Riggins44 said:
What a game last night! Back and forth all game, it was tied 3-3 in the third period until Ovechkin slapped in the game winner with 1:07 left. Lots of good, hard hits. Nothing really dirty though Tom Wilson did have a somewhat controversial hit on a Pens player in the second period that drew blood. Looking forward to Game 4 tomorrow!
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It's more than "somewhat controversial" around these parts. Wilson gave Zach Aston-Reese a concussion and a broken jaw that requires surgery, the game after waylaying d-man Brian Dumoulin with another head shot that caused a concussion. Incredibly neither hit was penalized but Wilson was just hit with a richly deserved three game suspension.
 
I am honestly not enough of a hockey fan to know what hits are dirty and what aren't, so I will take your word for it. Since Aston-Reese got hurt so bad it must have been a pretty vicious hit.
 
Don Wassall said:
It's more than "somewhat controversial" around these parts. Wilson gave Zach Aston-Reese a concussion and a broken jaw that requires surgery, the game after waylaying d-man Brian Dumoulin with another head shot that caused a concussion. Incredibly neither hit was penalized but Wilson was just hit with a richly deserved three game suspension.
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Thank goodness. I was pissed after seeing that hit, and refrained from posting on it last night. Wilson is a dirty player and the type of player the league needs to get rid of. The fact that he was laughing after "accidentally" slamming into Aston-Reese tells me all I need to know. In addition to Dumoulin in Game 2, he also had a questionable hit against a Columbus player in the 1st round. What was almost as despicable as Wilson's hits were the "analysts" today trying to call it a clean hit. Simply insane.

Anyways, the Pens NEED to get more production from somewhere other than Crosby's line. Malkin looked good in his first game back, but everybody else has yet to step up. Kessel seems to be playing hurt, as he can't even shoot the puck or do anything useful right now, and Brassard, Rust, and Sheary among others need to step up. Murray also has to be more consistent; he had a shaky game in Game 3.

Tampa beats Boston to go up 2-1; Vegas/San Jose on right now.
 
Capitals beat the Penguins 2-1 in overtime in Game 6 to take the series 4-2. First time in I think 24 years and 7 tries that the Caps have beat the Pens. What a huge win for Washington. Also the first time Ovechkin has beaten Pittsburgh. I am really looking forward to the next series.
 
Helluva run by the Penguins, the only team I root for other than certain NFL teams when they're relatively White friendly. They just looked off all season, but the Capitals played very tough defense and had a solid game plan and deserve credit for knocking off the champs (finally).

The conference finals and then the finals should make for great hockey. I've always liked Ovechkin, so now that they've finally advanced past the second round I wouldn't mind seeing Washington finally win the Stanley Cup, but they'll probably be decided underdogs to Tampa and in the finals if they get past the Lightning. But maybe it's finally their year.
 
Winnipeg decisively knocks off Nashville in Nashville to win Game 7 and will play the miracle Vegas expansion team in the Western Conference final. Should make for compelling viewing, as should Tampa vs. Washington in the East. I expect Winnipeg and Tampa to meet in the final, but any combination of the four teams left will make for a great Stanley Cup final.
 
Don Wassall said:
Winnipeg decisively knocks off Nashville in Nashville to win Game 7 and will play the miracle Vegas expansion team in the Western Conference final. Should make for compelling viewing, as should Tampa vs. Washington in the East. I expect Winnipeg and Tampa to meet in the final, but any combination of the four teams left will make for a great Stanley Cup final.
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I dunno, based on the "Tiger Woods viewing matrix", the correct DWF team to root for would be the Las Vegas Golden Knights as they currently have TWO enhanced-melanin room-brighting-smile players with unlimited upside. The Capitals and the Jets only have ONE each, and the Lightning, well, they are RAYCISS and should have a crowd of SJW's protesting every game!! :p
 
FootballDad said:
I dunno, based on the "Tiger Woods viewing matrix", the correct DWF team to root for would be the Las Vegas Golden Knights as they currently have TWO enhanced-melanin room-brighting-smile players with unlimited upside. The Capitals and the Jets onlyu have ONE each, and the Lightning, well, they are RAYCISS and should have a crowd of SJW's protesting every game!! :p
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In that case go "White Lightning" :cool:
 
I know I'm late on this, but a great run by the Penguins the last two years came to an end on Monday. I definitely enjoyed it. I think the Penguins losing Game 5 in the fashion they did off that huge error by Letang in the 3rd was huge. In Game 6, it looked like Pittsburgh had run out of gas, they just looked slower than the Caps, who had the drive this year to win. Congrats to the Caps on finally making it through the Penguins. I see they beat Tampa last night; that and the Western Conference Finals should be great.
 
FootballDad said:
I dunno, based on the "Tiger Woods viewing matrix", the correct DWF team to root for would be the Las Vegas Golden Knights as they currently have TWO enhanced-melanin room-brighting-smile players with unlimited upside. The Capitals and the Jets only have ONE each, and the Lightning, well, they are RAYCISS and should have a crowd of SJW's protesting every game!! :p
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Actually the Golden Knights have a whopping three of the World's Greatest Athletes -- forward Pierre Edouard Bellemare who is one of those "French"-Caribbean mixtures, forward Ryan Reaves, and backup goalie Malcolm Subban, who is P.K.'s little brother. Of them only Bellemare receives regular ice time as a very low-scoring fourth liner, while Reaves has often been a healthy scratch during the playoffs, and when it comes to goalies, Subban compared to Marc-Andre Fleury is like Spurgeon Wynn compared to Peyton Manning.

So while Vegas may be the NHL's most "black-friendly team," they are still about as black dominated as the 2017 Oakland Raiders were White dominated.

Vegas was beaten pretty convincingly last night by Winnipeg, while Washington dominated Tampa on Friday night in Tampa. Both Game 2s are already close to must-win situations for the two teams down a game.
 
Capitals are up 4-2 over the Lightning at the second intermission of Game 2. Caps got a power play with 9.8 seconds left in the second period, and scored a goal with two seconds left. One of Tampa's goals came on a power play for high sticking call where the puck actually hit the Tampa player, not a stick. Tampa Bay came out fired up and were playing well but the Caps are taking advantage of opportunities and are looking good.
 
Caps end up winning Game 2 6-2 with a dominating performance. The Lightning were deflated and frustrated at the end, and the Tampa Bay fans were streaming for the exits. The Capitals are taking advantage of opportunities, are bouncing back everytime the Lightning try to get physical with them or they get a bad call, and are looking vary confident. Something like 39 of the past 41 teams that have gone up 2-0 in the last two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs have won that series, so Washington's chances of making the Finals at this point are pretty darn good.
 
Well the Capitals chances of reaching the Finals took a dramatic turn for the worse last night as they lose their third straight to the Lightning. The Caps dug themselves into an early 3-0 hole and couldn't quite dig out of it as the lost 3-2. After winning the first two games by dominating on Tampa's home ice, the Caps looked like they would skate right into the Finals. The biggest difference for Tampa Bay in the last three games has been goaltender Andrei Vassilevsky. After giving up ten goals in the first two games the guy has regained his focus and has become an almost impenetrable wall. Shots that in the early part of the series were getting by him he is now stopping almost totally. Game 4 was the best example as the Caps had something like a 36-18 shots on goal advantage but ended up losing 4-2. After finally beating the Penguins the Caps are on the verge of an epic choke as in the last 50 years, in the conference and Stanley Cup Finals, a team has won the first two games of the series on the road 21 times. Every time that team has won the series in six games or less. So needless to say this would be a huge letdown. But there is still one more chance tomorrow night for the Capitals to turn this around.
 
Vegas improbably in the Stanley Cup as an expansion team! Wonderful story.

Read an article about it on BSPN and clicked on the comments. Expected them to be overwhelmingly complimentary but there were a lot of DWFs saying the expansion draft was “unfair” and that league should be embarrassed by this. I don’t recall people complaining about the draft before the season. Just a lot of fans happy to dump “overpaid” and “underachieving” players that their teams chose to leave unprotected. Now they are acting like Vegas had their pick of all stars to select from.

DWFs truly are brain-damaged.
 
The league did make a higher caliber of player available for Vegas as compared to previous expansion drafts (fewer players could be protected), but nobody expected the success they've had. A fair amount of their players really blossomed, like William Karlson, Jonathan Marchessault, and Nate Schmidt. Marc-Andre Fleury is far and away playing the best hockey of his career. He was finally taught better fundamentals, like not getting way out of position after making tough saves, which used to happen all the time in Pittsburgh. He's clearly been coached up better in Vegas than he was in Pittsburgh and the Golden Knights overall are very well coached and disciplined, they beat Winnipeg primarily by capitalizing on the Jets' mistakes. Other than that it was a very even series with Winnipeg overall winning the territory battle. Players like James Neal are playing much better two-way hockey; when he was a Penguin, Neal languished near the circles to try and get off his deadly shot and did little else; he was a pure one-trick pony then but now he's a ferocious forechecker and very conscientious defensively.

It'll be interesting to see if the same rules apply for Seattle's expansion draft as for Vegas's.
 
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